Date: Tue, 8 Dec 98 23:01:27 -0500
From: NGLTF
Subject: NGLTF Attends White House Social Security Conference
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NATIONAL GAY AND LESBIAN TASK FORCE
PRESS RELEASE
Contact:
Tracey Conaty, Communications Director
800-757-6476 pager
tconaty@ngltf.org
http://www.ngltf.org
2320 17th Street NW, Washington, DC 20009
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TASK FORCE ATTENDS FIRST-EVER WHITE HOUSE
CONFERENCE ON SOCIAL SECURITY
WASHINGTON, DC---December 8, 1998 --- Today, National Gay and
Lesbian Task Force executive director Kerry Lobel attended the
first-ever White House Conference on Social Security. Held in
Washington, D.C., the conference was convened with the intent
of laying the groundwork for comprehensive, bipartisan Social
Security reform next year. Since its creation more than 60
years ago, Social Security has provided benefits for the elderly,
children, the poor, and people with disabilities. According
to recent reports, after 2032 the Social Security system will
only have enough resources to cover 72 cents on the dollar of
current benefits. Approximately 240 policy makers and advocates
from around the country attended the meeting, as did President
Clinton, Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle, Senator Rick
Santorum, House Minority Leader Richard Gephardt, and
Representative Clay Shaw.
The following is a statement from the National Gay and Lesbian
Task Force on the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender
community and social security. "Outing Age, A Working Paper on
Policy Issues Facing Old Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual and Transgender
People" will explore these issues in greater detail. This
report was authored by Jane Goldschmidt and will be released
by the Policy Institute of the National Gay and Lesbian Task
Force in 1999.
We are in a time in which entitlements guaranteed to Americans
to alleviate poverty and provide assistance and health care to
the elderly and the disabled are being reconsidered and reformed.
Welfare, Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare are programs that
have, with varying degrees of success, provided basic security
to America's poorest populations. These programs provide
assistance to old people, the disabled, the unemployed, and
children. Now, as they undergo major changes, it is vital
that the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender (GLBT)
community be more involved and vocal about the changes being
proposed. The quality of our own future and the lives of GLBT
elders today depend on our involvement.
As gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people age, we
face the intersections of homophobia and ageism in our
participation in aging programs and our participation in our
GLBT communities. The GLBT movement must take up the struggle
of carving out a place for GLBT old people in both of these
contexts, so that aging can be a process of discovery and
enjoyment, rather than one filled with fear and discrimination.
One of the most invisible populations in the GLBT community
is old people. Estimates of the GLBT senior population range
from one million to more than one and three quarters million.
As the GLBT baby boomers age, this population will grow. GLBT
people confront very specific problems as they age, stemming
from the intersections of ageism, homophobia, racism and
classism which also face their younger counterparts and with
which all GLBT people struggle throughout life. As GLBT
people grow older, we enter a world of services that may not
be familiar with openly gay people. We also encounter the
ageism of our own communities.
GLBT movement activists need a working knowledge of the
struggles which concern all aging people. These include
economic anxiety, poverty, healthcare, finding suitable housing,
employment, and HIV/AIDS. We must also appreciate that for old
GLBT people, these struggles are compounded by the homophobia
that exists in social service organizations that assume their
clients to be heterosexual.
A number of the problems faced by old GLBT people also stem
from the fact that we often do not have the same family safety
nets as heterosexual people, and the fact that our families
are not yet recognized by law. As long as many of the programs
which ensure comfort and adequate financial resources and
health care in old age are filtered through family structures
which privilege heterosexual people, GLBT old people will
continue to face unfair obstacles in their aging processes.
As medical professionals and service organizations become more
involved in the personal lives of GLBT people, complex
situations arise which may result in the families of GLBT
being unable to make important decisions and many of our
choices not being honored. Family-related issues, which affect
GLBT people throughout life, take on new dimensions as we age.
The lack of legal recognition for our family bonds is a
difficulty all GLBT people must face. Because people of
the same sex cannot legally marry, and domestic partnership
policies are not available everywhere and does not always
apply to all the activities we need it for, our families are
often deprived of the rights and privileges that opposite-sex
couples and their families can receive. These include
inheritance, hospital visitation, power of attorney, employee
health benefits, housing, social security benefits for
survivors, and countless other things. We encounter these
issues increasingly as we age because we may rely more and
more on our families to take care of us or make decisions
for us. Also, we may seek more and more help from governmental
programs that use definitions of family that exclude us.
This frequently places GLBT people in a position where their
blood relatives have more power to make important decisions
for them than their partners and family who are not related
by blood or law.
We call on our movement to become involved in our country's
discussions about social security reform and other issues
affecting GLBT elders and others. Together, our activism
and advocacy can insure respect and security for GLBT old
people.
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Founded in 1973, the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force works to
eliminate prejudice, violence and injustice against gay, lesbian,
bisexual and transgendered people at the local, state and national level.
As part of a broader social justice movement for freedom, justice and
equality, NGLTF is creating a world that respects and celebrates the
diversity of human expression and identity where all people may fully
participate in society.
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